Second Chances
by Kate-Emma
Summary: Complete - Step Up 3D  - Spoilers if you haven't seen it  - She thought she'd lost her best friend for good, but like many other times before, she was so very wrong - Moose/Camille


**Disclaimer: **If Step Up 3D and it's predecessors were mine, I'd probably be rich and a bloody good dancer. Alas, I am neither.

**A/N: **I am not a Step Up fan. Let's just put that out there. I saw Step Up and didn't like it. But one dull Saturday last week when the option was go see a movie or sit at home bored and failing to write anything, I let Youtube take hold and, with the aid of Flo Rida and David Guetta, convince me to see the movie. End result: I LOVED IT! Not a huge fan of Natalie (even if Sharni Vinson is an awesome Aussie) and Luke, but Moose and Camille were too cute to deny. Plus damn that boy can dance! I wasn't alone either because when Moose and Camille got their predictable ending, half the cinema clapped and cheered. Proof that not all movie heroes have to be the outrageously good-looking leads.

Anyway, there's a bit of a gap in the storyline between the college scene and the ending so I'm going to fill it. I hope you like it.

... ...

A double degree in Engineering and Dance hadn't been possible many months before, back when he'd left high school thinking it was time to buckle down and start to face reality, back when the big dream had been to attend NYU with his best friend and just pass things and make his mother well, not so much proud as a lot less overbearing. But that ridiculous ideal had all gone down the drain the day in the park when he'd followed some great kicks right into the path of the Samurais, a bunch of pretentious upstarts who thought the dance scene was all theirs. They were so wrong.

That was the day everything he had now started – the day he met Luke, the Pirates, and the dance scene of New York.

How he ever thought he'd escape dance in the capital of it he wasn't sure, call him naïve, but soon he found himself leaving the streets for the bright lights and tough battles of the World Jam, the ultimate dance competition. $100,000 prize money, huge stages, war and massive crowds. This was what dance should be, not something confined to colleges and class; the real thing – a fight for success.

But there were only a few problems… college, time and a little thing called 'the future'. He knew he shouldn't dance, he shouldn't take time out of study to hang around with the Pirates, but he couldn't help it. When it came to dance he was well and truly hooked.

Moose was a slave to the dance floor.

...

She should've seen it from the get-go, the way he rushed off at the mere sight of shoes, the moment of confusion in the park when she was sure she'd seen him being chased by police, but she just didn't want to think otherwise. All through their final year at high school they'd talked about this, made plans, set up the future. He'd always had a knack for engineering, the guy drawn to switches and the mathematics of it all almost as much as he was drawn to hip hop videos and that awful collection of Timbaland songs he kept blaring from his phone. He had no taste, and his hair always looked like it had never been brushed, but still she couldn't help but like him. He was her best friend after all, had been for years, so with the good came the bad.

Still, she'd never expected him to go back to dance, forsake his future for something they'd agreed was all a thing reserved for high school and summer holidays. They'd danced together, attended classes and camps, but she'd moved on to reality and thought he'd come with her. When he started leaving her high and dry, deserting her in front of her new friends and leaving her alone when she thought he'd always be there, that was when she knew – she was second place to dance.

Camille would always be second best in Moose's life.

...

The Halloween Ball had been the tip of the iceberg in Camille's mind. Like all icebergs there was so much more underneath, but at least the tip was something even someone as oblivious as Moose could see. When he turned up late that night, not dressed and nowhere near eager to go with her, that was the last straw. To be hurt by a friend was one thing, but Camille had stopped seeing Moose as just a friend a long time ago. She'd fallen for her best friend and her new college friends knew that, told her to do something. She was going to confess that night at the ball, tell him it was time she was honest.

But then he hadn't come.

For an hour she sat there, coffee in hand, just waiting for him. Then, as the night got darker and depression overwhelmed her, she fell asleep. She woke to see him standing there, apologetic but not enough, and reality hit her again.

She didn't even rate second in Moose's life. She was his friend, a casual pal you could desert when need be, and never would she be anything more.

They didn't attend the ball that night. Camille didn't confess what she wanted. And Moose was left standing in the dark…

...

Winning his best friend back had meant everything to Moose but until he got that photo from his mum it didn't even register as something he needed to do not later or when he could, he had to do it now.

The Pirates were gone, the club shut down and his engineering career in tatters after he'd left that exam to attend the second round dance battle, but there was one thing he could still fix. He could get his Chameleon back.

Winning her back with dance hadn't been his first choice of strategies, but it did seem to make sense in the end – they had first met at a dance, their friendship strengthened through dance and heck, dance was why they were now on the rocks. In Moose's mind Camille was one of the best dancers he knew, though he was biased because she was his best friend, so she didn't find it too hard to keep up when they began to dance. And it felt good to get back to it again, dancing not to battle, not to win, but because he and Camille just could…

And in the end, when she seemed to accept he wasn't hurting her on purpose but simply because he was absolutely useless when it came to that sort of thing, she told him what he needed to hear – he had to dance, he was made to, so he couldn't give up.

With a push in the right direction, he went to see Luke at the diner…

...

She thought by lovingly shoving Moose back into the Pirates she'd done it, taken the high road but really lost her best friend. She couldn't be any more wrong when he turned up outside her dorm room with some of his old mates from the streets and a request to join the Pirates, help him save them from certain demise at the hands of those jerk Samurais. And just like every other time he asked something of her, Camille couldn't deny him.

And once she was dancing with the crew, learning new moves and mastering some really bizarre light-up suits, she knew why Moose had come back to this. Dance was where she felt free. It had started many years ago, back when it was just she and her brother, dancing in the backyard as they played with a basketball, but now it was more.

One evening during practice she stepped back to get a drink and watch the others, saw the concentration in the eyes of the people around her, the focus in them, and she could only smile. Then she caught Moose's eye and he looked so at peace, so content there, and she simply gave him a nod. He seemed to understand.

They had this World Jam. They had this $100,000. But most importantly of all, she had her friend back.

...

The World Jam had been, well, epic. The huge crowds, dancers from all over the globe, the extravagant costumes and the blaringly loud music. But it was all second to the big game. The way the Samurais sauntered onto the stage, two ex-Pirates gone feral among them, and how proud of themselves they became when it looked like the Pirates were gone.

Then the mood changed. Natalie returned. The mood lifted and it all turned against the Samurais. The Pirates had come back.

And in the middle of all this, Camille found her way to Moose's side.

"Bring it home," she said with a smile, her jacket unzipped to reveal the light-up suits he'd spent many hours perfecting. "Show those posers how it's really done." Then, with a wink, she disappeared back into the others, another face in the Pirates crowd. But she'd said enough and Moose glanced sideways at the twins who seemed to have heard the request as well.

And bring it home they did.

...

When Luke revealed he was headed to Cali, giving up the big city for film school, Moose couldn't have been happier for him. But before telling the others he had one last piece of advice for the younger man.

"I don't think I have to tell you Moose," he said, giving his shoulder a friendly squeeze, "but you gotta forget what's right and do what's best for you." It took a second for Moose to get the reference, and then he knew what he had to do. "Second chances don't come every day…"

... ...

"How'd it go?" Camille's bright and friendly face was the first thing he saw when he left the offices of NYU after seeing the Dean.

"Well," Moose paused for dramatic effect, "it seems I'm a double major now!"

She squealed. "Aw, Moose I knew you could do it!"

"Couldn't have done it without you." He smiled warmly. It was the truth. Without Camille he wouldn't be at NYU, wouldn't have danced with the Pirates, wouldn't be facing a future he now liked the look of very much. He'd sewn up two parts of it that morning and there was just one more thing to ensure. "Hey, wanna walk?" He thumbed towards the park, back where this whole business had started. It seemed right to end it there too.

Camille's smile dipped a little as confusion set in. "Okay, sure." She glanced at him sideways as he walked but he kept his eyes forward, sure that if he looked at her he'd confess what he was about to say without the lead-up he'd planned so meticulously the night before. She had no patience though, never had, and bombarded him with a few questions along the way. "You're not going to tell me something awful are you? Like that you're a double major but it's in Kentucky or something?" No response came and Camille frowned. "Moose, tell me!"

Finally they came to the park and Moose took her hand, leading her over to a small set of stairs where he'd first run into Luke the day when the whole thing began. "Chameleon, I owe you everything, you know that right?" She made to interrupt but he stopped her. "No, really, let me finish." She closed her mouth but the confusion stayed etched on her face. "You encouraged me to come here, to dance, to be myself and I just wanted to tell you that I thi…"

His speech was interrupted by a yell of 'hey, you' and the pair looked up to find a very angry-looking balloon salesman coming towards them. Camille spoke. "Um, why does that guy look like he wants to kill you?"

"First day here, when I battled the Samurais, I may have released a few of his balloons and got myself chased by the police." Moose said, grabbing his backpack and jumping to his feet.

"I knew it was you! You went running past and I was like 'he's gon…" she stopped when her arm was almost pulled from it's socket.

"Great story Cam but really, it's time to run!"

They broke into a run, dodging around by-passers and jumping over two small dogs that'd decided to help. Eventually, almost two blocks from the park, Camille bent over and caught her breath. "We'll never be allowed back in that park, you know that right?" She stood up straight to find Moose watching her silently. "What?" Then, with the slightest smile, he leant in and kissed her. So taken aback, she didn't even realise what was happening until he pulled away, by then finally finding her breath and the words to go with it. "Uh, okay, what was that for?" He just shrugged. Without understanding why, she found the whole thing quite funny. "You're so random, you know that?" She motioned back towards the park. "Taking on a professional dance crew on your first day here, making war with a balloon salesman and," her giggle broke her sentence, "and now…"

"Kissing you?"

Camille waved a hand in agreement. "Exactly." She caught his eye and was silent for a minute before smiling. "Good random of course." He grinned back, pulling her towards him and hugging her so tightly she couldn't help but laugh hysterically.

"Alright, one last thing to be done though." Camille glanced up. "We gotta say goodbye."

She frowned. "What?"

"To Natalie you idiot." He flicked her forehead and she pouted. "I'm not going anywhere." And, offering her a hand, Moose smiled. That morning he'd woken up with Luke's words in his head – not everyone gets a second chance. He had three things in his future that he needed to survive – a career in engineering, dance to keep him sane, and Camille. Now he had all three and things were better than good, they were perfect. "So, are you coming with me?"

She took his outstretched hand quickly. "Try and stop me."


End file.
